The Penang PH chairman said the fourth estate in Malaysia has been prevented for decades from performing its function as a watchdog of the government.

Bullshit, Guan Eng. You should check on the record of your nominated PM in regards to his intolerant attitude towards the press before you talk big.

From Wikipedia re 27 October 1987 when PM Mahathir launched Ops Lalang which imprisoned both you and your father:

In the afternoon the day following the first arrests, the Home Ministry withdrew the licences of the English language newspapers The Star and Sunday Star, the Chinese language Sin Chew Jit Poh, and the Malay language Watan.

The Star was claimed to have being targeted as it had served as an outlet for alternative views from non-established groups as well as dissident opinions from Mahathir's rival Team B, and it and the other two were also the only domestic newspapers that regularly covered the activities of public interest groups.

how he fck up Ku Li with fake news

Tunku Abdul Rahman, who wrote a column for The Star, said that "we are on the road to dictatorship", a comment which wasn't reported by the other newspapers.

[...]

Watan never fully recovered from it and closed its doors permanently in 1996. In the aftermath of the crackdown on newspapers and a subsequent legislation on press activity, editorials of newspaper started to self-censor and became cautious about the stories they ran.

According to journalists working during that period, newspapers were also advised by the Home Ministry to avoid certain issues, and editors were called for briefings with various ministries on the way a subject should be covered.

The Star itself, after its return, never regained its previous 'liberal flavour'.

I've been a PKR supporter since 1998. I know what they stand up for.I have a million ringgit home and drive a large German brand sedan. Zero debts. All honestly earned from hard-work and brains.No need for any Dedak.

I thought people are saying if ever Harapan wins GE14 TDM will be a puppet under the control of DAP. So how can he clamp down on free press? Or are we now saying if Harapan wins TDM will again be in complete control and DAP etc will be subservient. Which is it? Do we really think he can do in 2018 what he did 30 years ago?

He is now totally,completely on De Dak side now...that's why he's talking like the Bumno which he used to condemn not too long ago. What a difference a de dak make, wakakakkaka. Cash is indeed king...semua bisa di atur, pak !

At the end of the day. the media owner can dictate what can and cannot be published.

Also, advertisers can pull their ads from media carrying articles they do not want their advertisements to be associated with, such as happened in the case of Google, which began to more strictly enforce its terms regarding nature of content, by demonetising certain You Tube videos deemed inappropriate by advertsers, resulting in many You Tube content creators whining and moaning.

No government censorship involved here, all private sector censorship.

BTW. There was no "Fourth Estate" in France at the time of the French Revolution. There were only the First Estate (the clergy and the Roman Catholic Church), the Second Estate (the nobility) and the Third Estate (urban commoners including merchants, businessmen, professionals and so forth). Outside the three estates were the serfs who were tied to the landlords.

Edmund Burke is credited with using the term "Fourth Estate" for the first time in a U.K. parliamentary debate in 1787 and the term generally means - "a segment of society that wields an indirect but significant influence on society even though it is not a formally recognized part of the political system".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate

At the end of the day however, the owner of a part of this "Fourth Estate" determines its freedom, as well as the advertisers whose advertisements pay the journalists' salaries.

Anyway, what is the point of media freedom when those in power continue with business as usual, despite all the media chatter, which we already have in overabundance online to the point of opinion overload?

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics